Nicolas de Staël, René Char, Fequet et Baudier, Jacques Dubourg
Poems of René Char
1951
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Nicolas de Staël, René Char, Fequet et Baudier, Jacques Dubourg
Poems of René Char
1951
Physical Qualities
Unbound volume with woodcuts and letterpress, cover with color lithograph, Book: 385 x 295 x 44 mm. (15 3/16 x 11 5/8 x 1 3/4 in.)
Credit Line
Nelson and Juanita Greif Gutman Fund
Object Number
2011.112
The artist Nicolas de Staël and poet René Char met in Paris in 1951 and immediately became friends, planning multiple projects together. However "Poems of René Char" is the only publication that was realized before de Staël’s death. For this collaboration, de Staël not only created the woodcuts but also chose the layout, ink, and typography. De Staël’s abstract woodcuts of fragmented forms are not meant to illustrate Char’s 14 poems but serve instead as companion pieces that invite the reader to uncover their meanings. Char wrote of de Staël’s images, “The woodcuts Nicolas de Staël engraved for my poems... appear for the first time on a virgin snowfield that the sunray of your gaze will attempt to melt.”
The Baltimore Museum of Art by purchase, 2011; Sims Reed Rare Books, London
Off the Shelf: Modern and Contemporary Artists' Books
Inscribed: Signed on colophon, in black ink, by author and artist